The Internet Of Things – A Living, Breathing Storyworld

A simple definition would be interconnecting ALL your everyday objects; from your fridge to your washing machine to your entertainment devices to your car.

Everything is connected and more importantly, they can interact with each other seamlessly.

Did My Toaster Just Slag Me Off To My Phone?

For example, your fridge knows when you are running low on milk, and adds a new bottle to your shopping cart, the cart is sent to your local supermarket ready for pick up, while your car plots a route there with the least amount of traffic.

Cool right?

What makes it even more interesting is the apparent race among tech developers to create the “God Platform” of the IoT. A single user interface to control ALL IoT connected objects. In the case of Logitech, this is a single app, which connects to Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Infrared.

It’s pretty interesting stuff, but despite the excitement and many (many) concerns about personal privacy, you could see the IoT as something else entirely.

How about a chance to physically step into a REAL LIFE storyworld and REAL TIME narrative?

Think ARG on steroids.

What’s Real, What’s Story?

Picture this; there’s a murder, and you are a tech savvy homicide investigator, armed with a smart phone and a quick wit (quick wit not necessary) ready to solve the case.

You arrive at the crime scene (a disturbingly realistic set created specifically for the story) the coroners have already taken the body, but the crime scene clean up crew have yet to arrive. You whip out your IoT ready device and access the deceased IoT time frame.

Congratulations you just hacked into the last 6 hours of the dead man’s life. Here you can piece together the events that lead up to his (apparently grizzly) murder.

Does the fridge tell you that the victim ran out of Orange Juice and plotted him a route to the shops? Does his front door tell you there were exactly 12 minutes between being opened and closed?

But here’s the thing, his car’s Satnav tells you that he was gone for twenty-six minutes.

Who came in the house, and what did they do while he was away? And more importantly, were they still here when the victim came home, fresh orange juice in hand?

Do you access his PC or his TV? Did someone go routing through his clothes or use his toilet? Did they steal his food? What flavor crisps do they like? The crime scene holds the answers.

Do you come across details for a sinister deal that the victim was privy to? Can you make it to the real life location before the deal goes deal and culprit disappears forever?

The Satnav say’s it’s 3 miles away and you only have 15 mins…

Do you choose to gate crash the meeting that’s happening across town, or do you hang back and record the meeting from afar, streaming it instantly to the police data base?

Can you ID the members of the meeting from the clues in the house? Is that a stolen packet of crisps you see in criminal’s hands? Do you call for back up, or do you let them go?

The story is real, the action is live, the technology exists and the choice is yours. This is what I think when I read about the Internet of Things.

But hey I’m a nerd.

Inspiration

The impending inter-connected nature of all of our devices is fascinating, and in fact this blog post was partly inspired by a recent talk given by Robert Pratten, at his Conducttr Conference; in which Robert outlined several real-world opportunities for mobile operated stories and interconnected applications.

(My favorite was the commute to work told from the perspective of the London Underground Trains).

You can check out our recent 2-part break down of the Conducttr Conference here And find out more about Robert Pratten and Tstoryteller here.

Endless Possibilities

Do you have a slightly more innovative use for the IoT, than your laundry basket texting you because you are running low on socks, and informing the washing machine to power up?

The possibilities are only as limitless as the technology, and the Internet is a pretty big place.